


i turn you up, caffeine

by Kittog



Series: ideas lost in a notebook from two or three years ago (we've lost the count) [1]
Category: Gugudan (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, also it's my soulmate's bday, also when is gugudan coming back i miss them, dalgona coffee is pretty much the trend right now so i thought you know what?? let's go, ennemies to something??????, sayna uwu, they despise one another but sejeong makes really good coffee, trying to cope with the quarantine w gugudan u feel me on this?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:34:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23779219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittog/pseuds/Kittog
Summary: There wasn’t a single thing about Kim Sejeong that didn’t irritate Nayoung to the point of either throwing up or let the burst of anger take over her rather calm mind. Sejeong was, to Nayoung, pretty much like a disease, in the worst way possible.(Until Sejeong made Nayoung dalgona coffee, managing not to annoy her classmate for the first time in weeks.)
Relationships: Kim Nayoung/Kim Sejeong
Series: ideas lost in a notebook from two or three years ago (we've lost the count) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713046
Comments: 7
Kudos: 12





	i turn you up, caffeine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [YouKnowSuJi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/YouKnowSuJi/gifts).



> a few days ago, while messaging a close friend of mine, i fell back on a notebook i used a few years back to write aus ideas for many girlgroups (gugudan, wjsn, pristin, blackpink, twice, you name it) none of which ever saw the light as i was a terrible writer back then. but as my friend's birthday approached (she's a huge nayoung/sejeong enthusiast btw, it is important for you to know), i thought revisiting one of our favourite ideas out of all the aus as a present would be a good idea. sayjay, if you're reading this: happy birthday! love you more than everything, i hope you have a lovely day although you're confined at home :((  
> to all my gugudan enthusiasts out there: i hope you enjoy this short piece!! let's fill the gugudan tag altogether!

Whenever it came to dealing with emergencies -read: _assignments_ \- Nayoung had the terrible habit of spending as much money as she could in the fanciest and cosiest coffee shops in town, secretly hoping the caffeine and the visually pleasing spaces would boost her enough to actually get something - _anything_ \- done. Most of the times, the stimulant would kick in quickly, allowing her to finish whatever reading or paper she had been actively postponing throughout the week, as she prioritised her outings with her friends. As college already consumed an incredible amount of time, she believed in evacuating the accumulated stress and tiredness in intense shopping sessions with Hana and Mimi, where she would purchase clothes which unlike her friends she technically shouldn’t, _couldn’t_ , afford, yet she did. _Your typical broke college student but make it fashion,_ as she would usually say. Their dates would very often finish in their favourite salon de thé, where they would order the most mouth watery pastries, craving for the sweetness their lives lacked at times.

But once finals season would come through, her filled weekends and afternoons were soon replaced by what seemed like never-ending study sessions spent mostly on her own, hidden behind her large cup and bright computer screen. Unlike her classmates, she deeply avoided libraries as the mere idea of being stuck between dozens of anxious students frantically writing, typing, and turning the pages of their textbooks angrily made her feel dizzy. She needed an actual background noise, some calm voices and soft spoken words which although not addressed to her were enveloping her, making her feel safe with her notes covering the short round table in front of her.

Although she appeared like she couldn’t care less about her grades or her academic profile in any way, she did. More than anything. She always turned her papers in, never missed a single due date, never hesitated to raise her hand during lecture, point out omitted details, make some of the sharpest remarks there had to be made. Each new semester, students who had not yet encountered her would be immediately taken aback as she’d inquire whatever question she had in mind to her professor, expecting a careless and narrow minded soul behind her expensive coats and meticulous makeup. There was nothing more enjoyable than watching each of their faces slowly decompose itself at the sound of her soft voice, every single lecture. 

As she pushed the front door of the first coffee shop her path had led her to -she had woken up too late to spend time looking for a more sumptuous place, and it was the closest to campus- she wished her breathtaking effect came with an expiration date, immediately meeting the eyes full of admiration of some of her classmates who had dodged the library for the day, textbooks and laptops wide opened. 

Her eyes wandered around, embarrassed, not particularly feeling like running into any of her acquaintances or anyone who was also taking the “English literature and feminism” class that semester. She hated being interrupted during her study sessions, and she didn’t quite appreciate the thought of answering any kind of questions concerning Virginia Woolf’s work for at least the following four to five hours. 

She walked towards the counter which displayed a great variety of snacks, cookies, thick cheesecakes and healthier chia seeds puddings, before slowly rising her head, the baristas entering the frame limited by her two irises. 

She froze at the sight of the more than familiar silhouette covered by an impeccable black apron. 

Her eyes widened even more as she noticed the name tag of the employee, confirming the identity of the owner of one of the faces she despised the most on campus. 

There wasn’t a single thing about Kim Sejeong that didn’t irritate Nayoung to the point of either throwing up or let the burst of anger take over her rather calm mind. Sejeong was, to Nayoung, pretty much like a disease, in the worst way possible. 

The way she talked, the way she walked, the way she dressed, every detail about Sejeong that made her _so_ Sejeong was unbearable. It all started with her voice, always incredibly loud, too loud, somehow constantly full of energy, and filled with the most insufferable giggles whenever she wasn’t asking dozens of questions -somewhat relevant- to their fatigued history and lit teachers. Then it was her group of friends, a couple of first years, often nicknamed “happy viruses” due to their uninterrupted overflow of energy, which made Nayoung and Mimi sigh out of exasperation and Hana roll her eyes too many times per week. 

Despite being the most annoying person Nayoung had ever encountered, Sejeong was beyond excellent. Whenever a paper in Modern History was due for instance, she outshined every single of her peers, Nayoung included, effortlessly, annoying even more the twenty-one-year-old young adult. 

It was no surprise to find out Sejeong couldn’t bear her either, finding her too arrogant and pretentious, not a great fan of “the way she constantly showed off her expensive pieces of clothings”. (The remark had made Nayoung scoffed a couple of times as her clothes were nothing more but a way for her to express her personality and express herself.) 

Of course, Sejeong’s jaw dropped recognising her classmate, too shocked to see her to be pissed off yet. Nayoung blamed herself for not analysing the place from afar before stepping in, it was too late now, she had no other choice but to order and pick a table as soon as possible to study: fancy coffee shops could wait, her essay on Virginia Woolf not so much. 

She walked towards Sejeong, who was frowning by then, as she always would, perhaps attempting to solve a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces. Ordering coffee at a counter wasn’t so much of a difficult task for Nayoung, but in that instant, _somehow_ , it was. Picking the right beverage, although she’d always ask for the same drink -a caramel macchiato- had suddenly become a challenge. She reviewed the menu hanging above Sejeong a couple of times, briefly, trying her best to avoid her eyes, although it’d be inevitable at a certain stage. 

Eventually she looked down, biting her lips, anxious, allowing their dark pupils to finally meet one another. She cleared her throat. 

“I… I’ll have dalgona coffee, please.” 

_Dumbass_.

Her voice was cold and a little unsteady as she made her order - _she was so stupid, why would she ever order a dalgona coffee, she only swore by macchiatos_ \- in front of the completely passive Sejeong. Not seeing even the beginning of a smile invade her face was slightly disturbing, she couldn’t lie,there was an obvious void usually filled with her insane energy. 

Of course she didn’t bother asking for her name, already writing it down next to the order, and typing it into the cashier. 

Nayoung handed her credit card before she could even announce the price. The less words exchanged, the better. 

Thank God 

She stood there, awkwardly watching Sejeong’s back as she prepared her order. One thing she could definitely not deny, was how insanely pretty Sejeong was. She’d sometimes catch her wandering around on campus on her own, quietly, not a care in the world. She lacked of adjectives to describe how ethereal she looked. She often thought that the more she complained the less her beauty would distract her in class or in those random scenes of their lives. Unfortunately, complaining had proven itself to not be one bit effective. 

No matter how hard she tried, Sejeong remained the prettiest-

“Dalgona coffee for Nayoung!”

…-and most annoying being she had ever laid her eyes on. 

She grabbed the translucid cup which came with a long and thin spoon, buried in a massive layer of coffee cream, smiled -awkwardly- and made her way to the back of the shop, as she noticed an empty table by a wide window: she needed proper light to study.

*

“Hmm Sejeong? You’re good here?”

No answer.

“Not to be too intrusive, but you’ve been staring at her for a while now and _it is_ getting a little creepy.” 

Sejeong blinked, her coworker’s words finally making it through her ears and jolted in surprise. She couldn’t quite tell how long it had been since her elbows were against the counter, her hands both cupping and supporting her face, intensely watching Nayoung as she savoured the drink she had prepared her -a Dalgona coffee, her favourite variety of coffee to make and savour at any time of the day. She was focused, a few thin stacks of paper covering her table along with some highlighters, pencils, and of course her iconic mac book, from which it was almost impossible to tear her apart from. 

“She seems to enjoy it.” 

She turned around. Sally was then looking towards Nayoung’s seat, frowning, her hair tied in two long braids resting on each side of her face. She glanced back at Nayoung briefly -she was playing with her spoon with one hand, typing and scrolling with the other. 

“She better.”

She usually watched her with desdain, but the scene was - _oddly_ \- too _satisfying_ to watch, and deep down, she wished she could have smiled. Nayoung was ethereal. Her beauty was so exquisite that at times, she wished they didn’t depise each other as they did: the cold stares they would give and receive, the interruptions during lectures, the constant comments they’d made -often uncalled for- were slowly tiring her as the semester stretched itself. She wasn’t so startled when she realised after a while that she had been purposely avoiding the coffee shop where she worked part time -minimising the time spent in the same area appeared to be the key to everyone’s “wellbeing”. But it saddened her somehow, not being able to admire her features more often. Being able to observe her behind the cashier, she felt priviledged. It almost felt like a miracle, like it wasn’t supposed to happen, yet it did. 

She roughly whined. 

“Sejeong? Could you _-perhaps-_ help me out? You’d be surprised but we actually have clients and it seems that I have yet to master the art of latte.” _So you better stop fixating on that college girl you’ve been complaining about for the past six weeks and get behind the coffee maker because I actually lose my mind._

And without being asked twice, she went back to work.

As the afternoon went by, the smell of caffeine was invading every single inch cube of space the coffee shop had to offer, it permeated the room, Sally and Sejeong’s clothes, their hair. They didn’t mind much however, it was a smell they had both grown accustomed to and enjoyed, caffeine rhymed with smiles and laughs exchanged with machiatos, iced lattes, and expressos. 

It was common to regularly come accross the same faces throughout the week, being the closest coffee shop to their campus definitely helped, and Sejeong enjoyed linking with customers through their orders: it was an activity she particularly found mesmerising. She loved memorising one’s preferences: hot or iced drinks, with or without caffeine… 

But she hadn’t quite expect to have to bond with Nayoung over her orders. 

“Can I-... Is there anything wrong with your order?”

She couldn’t tell which tone was the most appropriate to pick: should she appear warmer? More welcoming? Although she couldn’t stand the way she last talked to her during history lecture? 

She lacked of ideas as she faced the young girl, her face ever so pretty, a little awkward. She quickly shook her head. 

“No… I’d like to order something else actually.” She paused, bit her lip. Her jaw dropped at sight, more than she wished it had, if anything she didn’t want to make it seem like Nayoung had any kind of effect on her. “My order was perfectly fine… the dalgona- you make really good dalgona coffee, it was sweet but…” She bit her lower lip again as Sejeong was trying her best not to give away her biggest smile of the day -for some reason she loved being complimented on her dalgona coffees more than being complimented about her looks or her thoughts. “I need something stronger? Like, I’m trying to finish that essay on Woolf’s work and-”

“Expressos are our strongest drink, would that be okay? Medium size?”

She nodded, probably taken aback by Sejeong’s sudden answer. 

“Yes, definitely, that’d be… perfect.” She seemed hesitant as she finished her sentence, it was most likely their first time exchanging more than two lines without attempting to ruin each other’s week. 

She handed her credit card, eyes on Sejeong, nervously biting her lip _-again_ , she wished she didn’t spend so much time and energy ruining her well drawn mouth- which she quickly placed onto the bank terminal before handing it back. 

“One medium expresso, coming right up!” 

“I got it!” Sally answered almost instantly, making her way towards their traditional Bialetti. As Sejeong’s eyes were locked on the cashier’s wide screen, she hadn’t noticed Nayoung was still standing behind the counter, waiting, full of apprehension. Her eyes widened when she detached herself from the device, meeting her classmate’s again.

“Oh... you can go back to your essay, I’ll bring your order to your table.”

“Are you-... are you sure? I can totally wait, it’s no bother-”

“Nayoung, that essay is due in _two days_ , head back to your seat it’s fine. Besides, this is part of my job, you can’t really take that away from me.” 

*

Focusing wasn’t meant to be so hard, it really wasn’t. Yet, as minutes passed since she had finished sipping her expresso, she felt distracted. The caffeine had kicked in, she felt energised, her fingers seemed to have the sudden urge to type whatever words came to her mind, but none of them had any link to her essay anymore. Her notes were covered with her messy handwriting, comments angrily added in red, incredibly frustrated. Two days, she only had two days. 

For a moment she blamed herself for picking the only coffee shop in town which came with Sejeong behind the counter. She hadn’t expected her to be such a distraction. She felt watched, observed, but she couldn’t tell why. She didn’t dare to look away from her computer screen, terrified of meeting Sejeong’s eyes again -she had figured how awfully disturbing looking at her was, and had decided she didn’t want to repeat the experience ever again. She felt too much at once, it was overwhelming, but seeing Sejeong smile as she carefully placed her cup next to her notes somehow made things much worse. 

Time went by. 

She ordered another expresso, desesperate for a bigger attention span and inspiration. It didn’t take long before Sejeong approached her table again, replacing the cup with a new one. 

And a slice of strawberry cheesecake. 

“There must be a mistake I haven’t ordered-”

“Caffeine is nice but you can’t keep on studying on an empty stomach. I figured that would brighten up your… study session.” Her eyes briefly looked at the notes, messier than they were about an hour a half prior to their last encounter at the cashier. “It’s on the house, no worries.” 

“Oh thanks-” 

She was already walking back towards the counter, beaming as she greeted the costumers queuing, while Sally was taking in the various orders, nodding in between smiles and chuckles. 

Nayoung eyed the cheesecake. She looked at the opened Google documents page.

_Fuck it._

She brought the plate closer to her. She had missed her usual late afternoon snacks. She continued going over her work as she led the cake to her mouth. 

_Time went by._

Staring at the computer screen for such an extended period of time had tired her so much tears were coming out her eyes -she had no control over the flow of water dripping along her cheeks and somehow didn’t care much as she simply wanted to get rid of her assignement and head back to the dorms, get a good night sleep (sleep in the morning perhaps?), before spending more time studying for whatever essay or final came next. Her eyes squinted a few times, some droplets of water hitting her notes, messing with the different shades of ink she had used.

Unfortunately for her, her emotionless tears weren’t left unoticed. 

Before she could even wipe them away, Sejeong’s hand was holding hers, shaking it lightly, worry covering her face. She would have most likely brushed her touch away if it had fallen on any other day, but her touch felt light and soft against the back of her hand, her thumb stroking it in the most reassuring way. 

“Nayoung-” she started.

“What’s up with you? Why are you trying to be so… nice?” She didn’t mean to be harsh as she enquired the girl, but as the fatigue hit, so did her short temper.

“You’re a customer, I’m literally not allowed to treat you any other way.”

“But still-” she objected.

“Look, I don’t know if this about the essay or something else but either way I really think you should take a break and go back to the dorms. We’re closing in less than an hour anyways, so you’d rather get going-”

“It’s not coming together.” She muttered under her breath.

“Hm? The essay?” She held her hand a tighter. Nayoung could sense her heart pound a little too fast in her chest. 

Nayoung nodded. 

“It’s like… I have all the ideas, the perfect outline, yet the words don’t come out the way they should… does that- does that even make sense?” 

Sejeong chuckled. Her thumb continued moving in circular motions as she slid a few of her fingers into hers. 

“You’re still getting something going, right? I believe through bad writing, good writing can emerge. You’ll have enough time tomorrow to go over the wording and make it neater.”

Tears kept going down her face. Her eyes were itchy, red because of how exhausted and restless she was. 

“I also have a few paragraphs to go over so… how about we meet up tomorrow afternoon to finish it? That leaves you enough time to rest and we could get some bite to eat, once it’s done?”

Nayoung blinked.

“Did you just-”

“I’m kind of tired of having to spend so much time despising you, this semester is draining and I think… things could be a lot more casual between the two of us.” 

She didn’t quite get what she meant by “more casual”, the more she questioned herself, the more confused she was by which answer fit her words better. The proposition was however, more than tempting.

“There.” 

She handed her a tissue. 

“Tears don’t suit you much.” She smiled. 

She accepted the soft material, bringing it to her eyes and wiping the salted water away, her eyes felt a little dry then, irritated. She couldn't help but notice how prettier Sejeong looked from up close, her dark irises in perfect harmony with her face, thin yet full of emotions. Her fingers allowed Sejeong’s to enlace them -it felt particularly good, a lot nicer than she would have ever dared to imagine. Maybe she was craving for some affection after all, in any available way.

Sejeong grabbed one of the wandering pens on the short furniture, then scribbling in the corner of a page filled with Nayoung’s handwriting. She bent her head towards the paper, hand locked with Sejeong’s, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever she was writing. The girl let go of her pen, revealing a series of perfectly aligned numbers. 

“Text me when you get to your room, okay?” 

Nayoung giggled. 

“Yes, _mum_.” 

Sejeong rolled her eyes at her words, retaining any laughs from coming out of her mouth. She was known for her tendencies of being the "mum friend": constantly checking up on her friends, sending in positive and gentle reminders throughout the day, calling in regularly. She cared about others.

“Please, I’m being serious here. I’ll see you tomorrow?” 

“You will.” 

She couldn't believe herself as she said so -study buddies were a no-no for Nayoung, she had always prefered being on her own whenever in need to be insanely productive, but Sejeong's hand was a terrible tool, incredibly persuasive. She couldn't refuse.

She smiled, her hand holding Sejeong’s even tighter then. She hadn’t been that happy to work on an essay in a _long_ time. 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed this!!  
> i had a lot of fun writing this piece, although i barely spent an afternoon working on it, but it was quite a good way to distract myself from all that studying i need to get done with. tbh i can't tell if this is actually even good or not, i wished i had worked on it for more time, but that's what happens when you keep on postponing everything. writing this, i was a little chaotic as i kept on changing the title again again and again, changing povs, story lines etc. (3:11am update: i can't quite tell if i enjoy the way i worded everything and the ending in general??? but like??? how do i even end this????? i'm confused)  
> don't hesitate to leave a comment and give me your thoughts!! 
> 
> come say hi on [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/kittog__)! i also have [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.qa/kittog) where you can ask me anything or drop a request!  
> love, kittog.


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